The present invention relates generally to the field of robotics and specifically to a multi-position electrical connector for the master and/or tool modules of a robotic tool changer.
Industrial robots have become an indispensable part of modern manufacturing. Whether transferring semiconductor wafers from one process chamber to another in a cleanroom or cutting and welding steel on the floor of an automobile manufacturing plant, robots perform many manufacturing tasks tirelessly, in hostile environments, and with high precision and repeatability.
In many robotic manufacturing applications, it is cost-effective to utilize a relatively generic robot to accomplish a variety of tasks. For example, in an automotive manufacturing application, a robot may be utilized to cut, grind, or otherwise shape metal parts during one production run, and perform a variety of spot welding tasks in another. Different welding tool geometries may be advantageously mated to a particular robot to perform welding tasks at different locations or in different orientations. In these applications, a tool changer is used to mate different tools to the robot. One half of the tool changer, called the master module, is permanently affixed to a robot arm. The other half, called the tool module, is affixed to each tool that the robot may utilize. When the robot arm positions the master module adjacent the tool module connected to a desired tool, a coupler is actuated that mechanically locks the master and tool modules together, thus affixing the tool to the end of the robot arm. Tool changers and their constituent couplers are well known in the robotics arts, and are commercially available, such as from the assignee, ATI Industrial Automation of Apex, N.C.
Many robotic tool changers include features to pass utilities—such as electrical current, air pressure, hydraulic fluid, cooling water, electronic or optical data signals, and the like—through the robot changer from the master module to the tool module and vice versa, via mating terminals, valve connections, electrical connectors, and the like, thus making the utilities available to the selected tool.
The wide variety of tools that may be connected to a robot arm may impose different space constraints on the placement of such utility couplings, and the concomitant routing of conduits such as wires, hoses, and the like. Other constraints on coupling placement and conduit routing may be imposed by environmental conditions created when the tool is operative, such as excessive heat, electromagnetic interference, and the like.
In response to customer demands spawned by such constraints, robotic tool changers have developed an array of differently configured utility couplings. For example, ATI Industrial Automation provides a variety of multi-conductor electrical connectors that transfer electrical signals across the master/tool interface. These connectors provide a consistent master/tool interface configuration, but locate their cable interfaces in a variety of different directions, e.g., straight-through, at a right-hand 90 degree angle, at a left-hand 90 degree angle, and the like. While the variety of electrical connector configurations allows customers to route their electrical cables conveniently, it increases the complexity of configuring a robot changer for a given application, increases inventory, and makes changing a given installed configuration problematic, as the connectors often must be changed to accommodate a different desired cable routing.